Homage to Computus

For those observing per the Gregorian calendar, today is Easter Sunday. The method (Computus) used to determine that fact is complex, and has been cited as a primary motivation for keeping arithmetic alive through the Western Middle Ages. In acknowledgment of the importance of arithmetic's persistence today, and given the convenient availability of an algorithmic description, TO chose to undertake the simple programming exercise of implementing the method, and attaches the C code as a comment.

When Models Diverge

TO is interested in weather. Like time, another topic already encountered here, weather represents an example of something pervasive and ever-changing in our environment, and is something that people have long sought to measure and interpret quantitatively. It differs, though, in the level of interest and effort that's applied to predict its future. Occasional insertion of leap seconds into the calendar doesn't affect as many daily lives. Extensive computer models (as at Model Analyses and Forecasts) have been developed to project atmospheric trends based on observed data. At least today, however, they haven't replaced the need for human judgment. The problem arises when the models predict different results. Then, forecasters draw on experience to decide which choice (or hybrid) appears most likely to be accurate in the physical world (or, in the field, "to verify"). In the US, these judgments are often visible to interested readers in regional Technical Forecast Discussion pages, such as this example. Will models continue to improve, to the point where it will be vanishingly rare for human experts to need to arbitrate among conflicts? Or, will different algorithmic processes necessarily continue to yield different results in some cases, to be resolved above an algorithmic level as with discussions among a group of specialists in a topic? TO (though only an interested layperson in the field) suspects that the divergences will become rarer over time, but won't soon disappear.

Context for Special Rats

TO recalled observing a motel sign that announced a "Special Weekly Rat", an unusual offer to be presented as part of an accommodation package. Had it been a pet store's sign, it might have been advertising an intentional and recurrent rodent promotion. In context, however, it was perhaps more likely to have been a missing terminal "E".

Time, Satirized

Even with the breadth of items on today's web, one may still encounter and savor combinations of bits whose very existence has the power to surprise. TO believes that WWV-The Tick, cited under the unexpected Satire heading within Wikipedia's article on the U.S. standard time station, parodying what might occur if commercial interests overtook the National Institute of Standards and Technology's time signal broadcasts, clearly appears to qualify.

Constitutional Edge Cases

There's interesting commentary at today's electoral-vote.com, under the heading "Homework for the Legal Beagles". TO hopes that the U.S. Supreme Court will not be called upon to make a contentious interpretation relative to these factors following the upcoming election.

Open Source: The Prospect of Self-Driven Control

This post is being written using open source software. Why is this? There are a number of technical arguments, but they aren't the focus of this post. TO observes a subjective factor that makes OSS attractive: the ability to reach "under the covers" to adjust, configure, customize, or add to it. The title and theme of the excellent Freedom To Tinker blog, though not primarily oriented to OSS, captures this motivation well. If our lives evolve to balance precariously on top of more and more pieces of technology that we can neither understand nor influence, we lose control over these aspects of our environments and become alienated from them. Even if rarely or ever exercised for reasons such as available time, complexity, or lack of functional need, the potential ability to change their behavior allows a potential avenue of self-driven control. Today, many of us have only infrequent occasion to build fire from available woodland materials, but can nonetheless be facile in building or installing kernel updates. We may not be involved in building our houses, but can take satisfaction in how we shelter and arrange data. TO appreciates the satisfaction of "making things work" and enjoys amenable opportunities to do so, though can sometimes be less appreciative if a machine elects to dictate the circumstances when diagnostic assistance is demanded.

Doubled LeTTers, Sometimes SOOthing, Sometimes MiSSing

While paTTing a puRRing cat, TO's Significant Other (TOSO) wondered whether other words bearing adjacent doubled leTTers were more likely than most to have sOOthing characteristics. This led TO to ponder how much of the alphabet could be speLLed with English words that doubled particular leTTers in question. Representatives for the foLLowing sixtEEn leTTers came to mind in fairly short order, some sOOthing and others not: AArdvark, eBB, aCCuse, eDDy, bEE, eFFort, eGG, teLL, coMMit, coNNect, pOOl, oPPosite, eRR, leSS, aTTend, and buZZ. (Besides Q, the gaps are concentrated: H-K and U-Y. Coincidence?) If you identify candidates for the miSSing leTTers, please coMMent. TO may also consider further or check other references, but doing so beforehand sEEmed to spoil the puZZle's chaLLenge.